


Arrivals

by CigsLostInSpace



Category: The Penumbra Podcast
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fix-It of Sorts, Kidnapping, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-13
Updated: 2017-11-13
Packaged: 2019-02-01 15:31:47
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,448
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12707778
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CigsLostInSpace/pseuds/CigsLostInSpace
Summary: When Peter comes backs to Mars he hopes to avoid seeing Juno. But fate being what it is, brings them back together. Requiring our favorite Master Thief to once again save Juno and not only, from himself.





	Arrivals

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first fic that I'm publishing and also my first fic in this fandom so feel to show love or wreck me my writing needs help. Sorry for being an angst boy the next one will be fluffier I promise. Also, I incorporated a lot of lines from the show in, because the writing is so good, so have fun playing finding those!!

Exploring the galaxy by yourself really isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. At first, I lived for the mystery of it all, leaving my mistakes in the past, new name, new identity, and the freedom to be whoever I want to be wherever I want to be. But then Juno came along and spoiled everything. I knew him for what could be considered fleeting moments in a lifetime and yet he became my life. Never before had I trusted someone so much with so little to go on. Hell, I should’ve seen it coming when he handcuffed me the first time. I just didn’t want to. Here I am though, alone again with a heart that I cannot fix by myself.

It was too soon for me when business called me back to Mars even though several months had passed. Hyperion City had just become a place I struggled to forgive and forget. Stepping out into the streets the foul smell of Mars overrides my senses, a slight grimace pulling at the corner of my mouth. The café my employer wanted to meet at looked all but abandoned on the outskirts of the city. A broken neon sign alerted me to the fact that I had found the right establishment. A perfect place for illegal conducts I suppose, I sighed as a pushed on the rotting wooden door and stepped into the room. Dark, dingy, and just as I had suspected, empty. No one stood behind the counter and none of the lights were on minus a web monitor flickering brightly in the dark. Just then the screen lit up with a live video feed and I saw him. Juno Steel, private eye, tied up and slumped over a chair in a dimly lit room. A clearly distorted voice erupted from the intercom, “REX GLASS, IF YOU WANT TO SEE THIS MAN ALIVE YOU HAD BETTER COME TO THE OLD TOWN WEAPONS FACTORY. AND COME ALONE IF YOU WANT TO SEE HIM STILL ALIVE TOMORROW.” The screen flashed off and that’s when I noticed I was shaking. This was not how I planned to see him after all this time.

Of course, if I was Juno Steel perhaps I would have listened to the man in the video but I wasn’t. Naturally, the first thing I did was call up Rita and Sasha to plan out the best course of action. And not to brag but I think we handled those bastards pretty well. The warehouse they were holding Juno in had two levels and a seemingly limited amount of exits but Sasha seemed to know the layout fairly well and we were in in no time at all. Rita talked us through the twisting hallways from the safety of her office; it made sense to have someone behind for back-up anyway. After moving through about half the building with little to no difficulty it became apparent how poorly this operation was being run. We eventually hit a split in the path and Sasha took five men with her as I took off silently down a dark hallway doing what I do best. Disappearing. I heard shouting from outside a door with light flooding out from underneath it; I leaned up against it trying to discern the number of people inside. The only thing I caught was ‘then go dispose of that PI quickly’ and already I had opened the door and sunk knives into the two men by the door. They grunted and fell leaving one man in the room laser gun drawn on me. He went to speak but I didn’t hear the words I had already moved forward knocking into him. The gun flew out his hand and in one quick motion, his jugular vein breathed like it never had before. I stood up and checked that I hadn’t gotten too much of this foul man’s blood on me. Juno wouldn’t appreciate the mess. I noticed that this room housed many knives and other various weapons and a door opposite the one I came through. It was quiet so I assumed it was empty but it was always best to check in these situations. I was the first one to find Juno. Opening the door cast a stream of bright light against Juno’s small frame. I rushed to him, knife drawn, and made quick work undoing the ropes pinning him to the chair. He seemed much lighter than he did the last time I saw him and his skin was paler, well as pale as it could be. “Juno, Juno are you alright? We’re here, and you’re safe I promise.” Wordlessly he tried to stand but instead stumbled into my arms. “Easy, easy now Juno,” I just sat down letting him rest across my lap, unwilling to make him strain any more than he needed to. He looked up at me and I expected some crappy line about how I should have been there sooner or he was handling it, but none came. Instead, his face was tight, contorted in pain and straining in the dreary light.

“Peter.”

I don’t think it was something I’d ever heard Juno say out loud. But here he was in my lap just saying it over and over again. Quiet but present, like a lifeline he was clinging to while he pressed his body as close as he possibly could to mine like somehow I could protect him from all this pain. I had never felt quite so helpless in my whole life. I couldn’t hope to imagine how he felt. He was freezing and just shook violently in my arms, his face once held one large scar that spanned the bridge of his nose. Now it was home to many smaller scars and bruises but he still looked the same as the first day I saw him trying to crawl out that office window. But his eyes were desperate; the thrill of adventure that once darted around in them no longer shone through.

\- - -

I remember driving us to the hospital; the best I could find close by, Juno had his head in my lap the whole way after refusing profoundly to sit by himself. I also remembered how scared he looked as I carried him into the hospital, like the building itself frightened him. A mystery to unravel another day I guess – Rita walked in with us and told me that Juno had been missing for about two months with no one able to locate him. My heart sunk knowing that I had perhaps been the cause of this, allowing him to go back to his often reckless ways. But what I don’t remember was climbing into his hospital bed and falling asleep against his frail body. 

But that’s where I woke up, Juno curled up tightly against my chest fingers dug into my wrinkled shirt. Gently, like he was sleeping peacefully no longer plagued by nightmares. That’s when I noticed he was awake and staring at me. A look of disbelief on his face like perhaps I was just a dream, a trick his mind was playing on him. “Juno?” His eyes widen, I flash him a nervous smile, and they drop to my teeth. “I I-I’m sorry,” are the first words he chokes out and I can hear the pain caught in his throat, tears drop onto my hand. I reach up to my eyes to wipe them away. “No, no, no I’m sorry. I-I shouldn’t have left you alone. I,” Juno grabs one of my hands as I try to stop myself from crying. He just smiles up at me his own eyes watering. “I love you.” My tears stop, and to be fair so does my heart. I can do nothing but stare down at the man I’ve loved since the day I saw him, “I love you too.” “You’re the greatest thing that’s ever happened to me.” “That, well that makes two of us.”

I waited until Juno was released from the hospital and at home to talk about the matter weighing in my mind. I stayed in the hospital as much as I could over his week-long recovery. It was tricky especially since I wasn’t family and we weren’t together technically anymore but Juno always seemed more at ease when I was there so the nurses didn’t mind too terribly. We talked mostly about Juno’s health when he was awake and what plans he had for healing after. He eventually agreed to a month-long house arrest with Rita and myself as his guardians. We never talked about us after that first night much less what had happened to him while he was held captive. But now I was dying to know if nothing else but to help with the nightmares that plagued him so often. I could tell he knew I was going to ask him about it today. Nervously he sat on the couch trying his best to look unfazed and stoic but all I saw was the frightened child underneath. I handed him a mug of hot chocolate and took a deep breath.

“We don’t need to talk about it all tonight, the last thing I want to do is stress you out more than you already are but I need to know Juno. I can’t help you if you don’t let me.” His shoulders straightened a little at this in a display of imminent confrontation. “Nureyev, I don’t know what you want from me. It was your typical hostage situation, okay? I was stupid and it was my fault end of the story.” “Juno we both know that isn’t true. Regardless it matters to me. It matters what happened to you and why they took you in the first place. They could come back, you know?” Juno had gone back to calling me Nureyev after that night much to my dismay. But looking at Juno he seemed now very unsettled, his guard was down and he looked as if he just might bolt. “I-I don’t want you to blame yourself. You already do too much and I can’t, I just can’t do that to you. I was the one who came back to Mars not you, okay?” He was shaking and I thought about letting it go for today but I just needed to know. “Blame myself? Juno for once just think of yourself, you can’t possibly hope to heal keeping all this to yourself. I promise we can get through this, together.” I placed my hand on his and gave him my most convincing smile; he swallowed, nodded and spoke, “They wanted to know about you. Anything and everything. All they had to go by was a photograph and some audio clips. They wanted your name, where you were born, hell what your favorite color was. And I just refused, I guess. I don’t know why I just couldn’t. So they kept at it until you came close enough that they could lure you in and finally I was of real use to them. I let myself get caught, I let my emotions fool me into thinking you’d come for me.” Confusion set over my mind, “What do you mean, I’d come for you?” Juno looked down and spoke quieter but the shaking had stopped. “I got a call two months ago from what I thought was you, telling me to meet you in an abandoned part of town alone. So I did, I didn’t even tell Rita I was going out that night. It was a rookie mistake. I was so stupid, Nureyev I shouldn’t have trusted them.” I stared at Juno as he spoke and my jaw went slack. Two whole months of endless torture, for my sake, and Juno didn’t say a word. “You didn’t have to do that Juno you impossible idiot, it’s just a name. You had no reason to do that-” “No it’s not just a name it’s your name, I couldn’t let them get you, I-Peter,” I don’t know why but my body willed itself to move and I kissed him. To my pleasant surprise, he kissed back. When we finally took a breath I said, “I was so sad, so inconsolably sad when you left. I couldn’t bring myself to chase you anymore. I should have tried harder, known how you felt.” Juno was now sitting with his back against my chest with my arms crossed on top of his chest holding his hands. “No for once, it truly was my fault. I was being selfish I knew I could never leave Mars with you and that you’d never be happy stuck on Mars. I mean sure you might’ve thought that for a while but the universe would call to you and you’d leave. So… I tried to spare myself that heartbreak by leaving first. I knew it was wrong to leave without saying a word but I did it anyway, and I’ve regretted it every day,” I didn’t need to see his face to know he was blushing from shame and guilt. Probably also from admitting something to me, he might have not yet admitted to himself. I hadn’t noticed the tears pouring from my eyes until he turned around to hold my face. Cupping my cheek in one hand wiping away my tears, all I could do was smile and chuckle anxiously. “I promise I usually don’t cry this often. I just don’t think anyone has ever cared about me this much.” “So I take it you aren’t mad at me anymore? I mean its fine if you hate me or never want to see me again, or even if you just want to be friends.” “Juno Steel, I trust you with my life and you trust me, how could I ever ask any more of you? You have completely ruined my gentlemanly charm though and for that, there will be payback.” I reached out lacing my fingers around the back of his head intertwining with his hair and pulling his forehead to touch mine. I was ready to outrun the end of the world with this man. “I would have given up the universe for your heart Juno, no need to doubt that I am a man of my word you know. Next time all you need to do is ask?” “Peter?” “Yes, Juno?” “I’m never planning on leaving ever again.” Finally, a smile crept across his face and his eyes shined in the fluorescent night light. Then he closed the gap between us and it was the kind of kiss that feels like it’s going to last the rest of your life. And it did.


End file.
